Dark Entries US レコード& CD

Review: Codek is the brainchild of Jean-Marie Salaun who grew up in Paris influenced by the folklore of the inner city. In 1978 he joined art rock group SpionS alongside Gregory Davidow and recorded two singles. Diving into the Paris post punk scene he met Claude Arto and designed the artwork for Claude's single on Celluloid "Kwai Systeme / Betty Boop." Robin Scott (M "Pop Music") had produced the SpionS first single and wanted to collaborate further. With Claude, Jean-Marie wrote "Me Me Me", intended for a choir, for M. Then SpionS split and Robin was off to Switzerland to record an album to follow-up his hit single. That left Jean-Marie alone in London, where he began working as Codek, a play on the brand name Kodak The "Me Me Me" single was released by MCA Records in 1980. Back in Paris, now with some studio experience, Celluloid Records hired Jean-Marie to produce records for Artefact and Les Orphelins. Over the next 2 years he began working on ideas for the next Codek single "Closer / "Tam Tam".

Review: Much is made of the love that Bill Converse from Austin, Texas, has for classic music making hardware (as opposed to the computer-based solutions most find convenient these days), but at the end of the day it's the results he gets rather than the means that have cemented his reputation as one of the most interesting names operating in the US today. This six track selection is no exception, suitably freed-up from convention or restriction and executed with a radioactive excitement that shines directly out of the grooves. Check the rapid fire snares of 'The Last Time', the eerie, horn-like screeches of 'Measurement (Of What?)' or 'Take Apart', with its ascending Detroit-style bassline, for further proof, or just dive in and enjoy the whole lot.

Review: In musical terms, Bill Converse is as iconic as the basketball sneaker with which he shares his name. He's a techno favourite and veteran of the Midwest scene who has come up under the likes of Claude Young and Traxx but very much fomented his own sound. Here the American ace returns to Dark Entries with a new seven-track exploration of raw, analogue-driven techno. His sound blends the acid grit of Relief Records, the hypnotic pulses of early IDM and Detroit's energy all with an unpredictability that mirrors that of his live sets. He makes fine use of classic hardware like the Roland TB-303 and modern modular synthesis to cook up off-kilter rhythms and abrupt shifts that keep you on edge. Another vital and visceral offering from this legend.

Review: School Daze is a killer compilation put together by the Dark Entries label and the Honey Soundsystem crew, collating some of the early recordings produced by Patrick Cowley in the years between 1973-81 and were later used as soundtrack material in two gay porn films. You will probably know Cowley for his Hi-NRG output or 'that' Donna Summer remix or his behind the buttons work on Sylvester tracks. Be prepared for a surprise (well quite a few as the 'explicit content' warning on the cover lives up to its billing) as this collection presents Cowley as a producer capable of many styles and moods. The closest School Daze comes to the sound Cowley is most identified is opening track "Zygote" and from here the collection runs through primitive electronics, short bursts of wave and more with a few extended gems that highlight Cowley's talent for arrangement. One of the compilations of the year!

Review: Dark Entries label regulars De-Bons-en-Pierre are back with more of their scuzzy delights in the form of their Card Short of a Full Deck EP. It's drenched in textbook sludginess as is often the way with Beau Wanzer and Maoupa Mazzochetti ever since they came together in 2016. These tunes were all originally written back in 2019 for live performances and really find the pair pushing at the boundaries of accepted social norms. The absurd sounds pair skipping rhythms with dark and freaky basslines and plenty of eerie rave chords to make for an all-new kind of dance floor energy.

Review: Dark Entries are reusing two albums from Philadelphia-based experimental duo The Ghostwriters. their debut as well as this follow-up, Objects in Mirrors Are Closer Than They Appear from 1981. Formed by the late Buchla innovator Charles Cohen and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Cain in 1971, the duo initially performed as Anomali before evolving into The Ghostwriters. Their work is a mix of improvisation and composition and it always stood out for its unique electroacoustic sound shaped through collaborations with visual artists and choreographers. Objects in Mirrors delivers eight minimalist tracks to get stuck into from the chaotic groove of 'Fix It in the Mix' to the ethereal "Moon Chant.' This remastered edition includes photos, and liner notes, and will donate proceeds to SOSA (Safe from Online Sex Abuse).

Review: Hackney Electronica is a collective of underground stalwarts who came together during COVID. It comprises the mad prolific Quinn Whalley of Paranoid London, Warmduscher and Decius, as well as Unai Trotti from Cartulis Music and Margo Broom of Hermitage Working Studios. They deal in acid-laced sounds which are a perfect fit for Dark Entires and here explore twisted late-night club sounds that are alluring yet austere. As their name suggests, they capture the vibe of Hackney's backstreets in their music with 'H.E. Nuestro Circuito' and 'Whispers from the Depths' bringing 1980s DIY electronics to a contemporary dancefloor, while 'Efecto Perfecto,' 'The One' and 'Nueva Ola' deliver potent electro powered by big breakbeats. It's a superb EP of tension and transcendence.

Review: Linea Aspera is the London duo of Ryan Ambridge (Synths/Programming) and Alison Lewis (Vocals/Synths). They began the project in November 2011, technically drawing inspiration from electronic music from the early 1980s. Within the duo, Alison writes and performs all vocal elements, while Ryan is responsible for the writing and performing of the electronics, as well as recording and mixing of the final recordings. For their debut album they utilized small, simple analog synthesizer set up: Roland SH-09, Roland Juno 6, Vermona DRM MKiii, Korg Poly 800 and Analogue Solutions Semblance. Linea Aspera's sound includes clear influences from early electronic body music, classic synth-pop and, in some instances, industrial and noise. Lyrically the band incorporates the sciences of osteology, neuroscience, and anthropology weaving a new medical language around themes of desire, despair and renewal. Linea Aspera serve up an icebox of dark doom riding on Alison's powerful vocals with a soft but sharp touch.

Review: The ever-popular and always innovative Dark Entries welcomes Lust Pattern for more deviant electro explorations here and i isn't the first time the artists has graced the label in such fashion: Ryan Armbridge has previously done so as Linea Aspera many times before, exploring coldwave revivalist sounds alongside Zoe Zanias. With this alias, though, he looks to post-punk and electro-funk for inspiration. Opener 'Forming Lines' is redolent of Drexciyan squelch with plenty of live drumming powering it on. 'Choreography' has a similarly aquatic feel but with faster drums and more urgent funk and 'It's Right There In Front Of You' then slows to a predatory and menacing crawl. 'No Floor' is a motorik workout with the squelchiest of mutant synth sounds and rickety rhythms.

Review: "The Next World Sound Series is a collection of work by contemporary sound artists working in long form instrumental composition and translated to the tangible medium of vinyl. These modern day offerings capture the analog quality and experience of last century electronic recordings, presented to you with today's technological advances in home playback, for your environmental listening pleasure." Or so say heads at the iconic and truly enigmatic label Dark Entries of this latest addition to their catalogue. A collection of work that spans the strangely frantic sci-fi tones of 'Oberenginen 0930' to the almost monastic drone of 'Soma', dubbed and muffled drums and vocals on 'Lixsm', club-ready broken beats of 'Destruct', and the evocative futurist refrains and samples of 'John Gore'. As expansive as it is exploratory and adventurous, you'll need to set aside some serious listening time for your first play here.

Review: Matt Cheon & Co. unearth yet more rare gems from old school electro fiends Caroline Herve & Michael Amato here, on the second volume of Lost Trax. As story has it, after the French duo met at a rave in their native Grenoble in the early '90s, they made music heavily influenced by 80s synth, post-punk and Italo disco. Bored by the techno scene at the time, they set out out to lighten the serious tone and bring a campy sexiness to the dour musical landscape. From the sexy, four-to-the-floor EBM of "Upstart", the Drexciyan style "Love On" with its aquatic bass assault, or the classic Miss Kittin & The Hacker sound of old on the monochromatic" The Building" featuring the former's trademark deadpan vocal delivery.

Review: Dark Entries welcomes back the Brussels brothers Jean-Marc and Pierre Pauly for this superb collection of B-sides and unreleased tracks. Formed in 1981, Parade Ground pioneered a more emotional take on their homeland's signature electronic body music sound by blending drum machines icy synths and guitars with Jean-Marc's powerful vocals. The Hidden Side spans 1982 to 1989 and explores their cold, dark aesthetic from menacing coldwave tracks to danceable cuts like 'Hollywood (The Sexiest Fish') to magically melancholic freakouts like 'Looking Through Keyholes'.

Review: Parade Ground is the Belgian duo of brothers Jean-Marc and Pierre Pauly and they formed this project in 1981 as a way of blending post-punk, coldwave and electronic body music. The Golden Years compiles their influential singles and rare tracks from 1982-1988 and it's a great window into their world of sleek synths, skeletal guitars and expressive, evocative vocals. Collaborating with Front 242's Daniel B. and Patrick Codenys, Parade Ground released seminal works like Moan On The Sly and Man In A Trance and later they worked with Wire's Colin Newman on Dual Perspective. This remastered album includes a press kit with lyrics and photos which chronicle their lasting impact on Belgian electronic music.

Review: Greek electronic music legend Lena Platonos returns to Dark Entries with Balancers, an LP of previously unreleased material recorded between 1982-1985. Athens-based Platonos has worked with the label previously to reissue her three solo LPs - Gallop, Sun Masks, and Lepidoptera - as well as to release three accompanying 12" EPs featuring modern remixes of her work. She is renowned for her forays into cutting-edge electronic experimentation as well as her striking, impressionistic poetry and lyrics, always recited in Greek. Also included is an insert with lyrics in both Greek and English.

Review: Robert Rental is an artist as influential as he is overlooked. An anchor of the early British DIY and post-punk scene, his name is most frequently uttered alongside illustrious collaborators such as Thomas Leer and Daniel Miller. Dark Entries and Optimo ally to illuminate some of Rental's early solo works with an expanded reissue of his debut 7" Paralysis /A.C.C.. Both labels have previously excavated Rental's catalog; we reissued the collaborative LP with Glenn Wallis in 2017, and Optimo released a collection of demos in 2018.

Review: Robert Rental is back on the mighty Dark Entries as the cult label reissues his Mental Detentions album as an expanded double pack. Rental is a Scottish pioneer of DIY electronic music who played a key role in shaping the UK's countercultural sound alongside collaborators like Thomas Leer and Daniel Miller. Though he released little solo music, his 1979 cassette Mental Detentions was a standout of the era that featured raw demos made with budget equipment like a Roland drum machine and Stylophone keyboard. Tracks like 'Stuck' offer a distorted take on the classic motorik sound, while 'Vox' delivers an 18-minute ambient journey in which it is easy to get lost. Rental's work captures the spirit of experimentation and innovation in the face of limited resources.

Review: Dark Entries picks up Severed Heads yet again for Ear Bitten, a double LP reissue of some of the band's earliest material. Pegged as early pushers of the Australian underground industrial scene, Severed Heads emerged in the wake of a former project also shared between three members, Tom Ellard, Richard Fielding and Andrew Wright: Mr. And Mrs. No Smoking Sign. The edgier name Severed Heads was also, conveniently, snappier, and the sonic result of this resignal act would soon prove it a good decision. Though they say they aimed simply to take after forebears like Throbbing Gristle or Suicide, Ear Bitten proves much more than the simple fact of stylogeny. The 22-track record was born of an anarchic assemblage of found domestic and street-larked objects (as well as specialist musical instruments) blurring the lines between the two: using every sound-making tool from cassette deck, to rare Korg or Kawai synth, to proverbial pots and pans, to open-reel (and thus implicatively fuckable-with) dictaphones, Ear Bitten offers a diabolical vision of the sheer, wordless length of the post-punk deserts parched by their 70s, New York precursors.

Review: Dark Entries is pleased to announce a deluxe reissue of Sexual Harrassment's 1983 opus I Need A Freak. Lynn Tolliver, DJ/Program Director at Cleveland's WZAK, adopted the pseudonym David Payton in order to keep his musical endeavors separate from his public persona. Sexual Harrassment (misspelled deliberately) was formed as a concept band, with members selected based on appearance and choreographic skill rather than musical ability. Tolliver's explicit lyrics focused on the central themes of desire and sexual relations. Working at a studio in Akron, he recorded an album of quirky-yet-lurid electro funk, which was released on Heat Records. Tolliver remarks, "I learned as a youngster, sex sells! The things that are rated the worst - violence, horror and sex - are the things people want to see or hear about." I Need a Freak was a surprise hit, selling over 100,000 copies.

Review: Dark Entries is back with Back Up Dos: Mexican Tecno Pop 1982-1989, which is a much-warranted follow-up to 2021's Back Up. This compilation features ten tracks of synth-pop and New Beat with seven previously unreleased on wax. It highlights the evolution of Mexico's DIY music scene as it moves from post-punk and new wave to aggressive EBM and cyberpunk. Reflecting the political turbulence of the era which was marked by rising drug cartels and conservative shifts, these tracks showcase how bands used home recording and drew inspiration from the Human League and Wax Trax Records while also including pop anthems by Casino Shanghai and Los Agentes Secretos, alongside rarities from Ford Proco and Maria Bonita.

Review: The peerless Dark Entries is back with another comprehensive new collection, Deep Entries: Gay Electronic Excursions 1979-1985, which is a well curated collection of ten rare queer synth tracks that explore the hidden corners of gay musical history. They span a pivotal period of six years and the songs range from sultry to angsty to camp with plenty of lovely 808 snares and textural analogue synths. This period in particular saw the gay community having to deal with the onset of the HIV/AIDS crisis and these tracks capture the era's mix of love and longing. Patrick Cowley's music is always going to stand out wherever you hear it and that is the case here on 'Love Me Hot,' while Megamen's proto-electroclash 'Designed for Living' and Paula Villagra's techno-pop anthem 'Happy Song' are also real gems.